


Knowing people

by Cana_banana



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Gender-Neutral Runner Five, POV Second Person, at least not yet, mostly to a not-so-safe degree, runner dynamics, some drama but not too much, various missions of various levels of safety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 09:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8661973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cana_banana/pseuds/Cana_banana
Summary: [NOTE: This and my other works are on hold temporarily because I am approaching finals with hasty steps. I will try my best to continue them during/after this May!]”Why did you bother to save me?”“Because more than ever, when the world is going to hell, we can’t lose that last bit of humanity. There are no debts to be paid, because we’ll all need to save each other someday. You’re one of us now; And runners stick together even when no one else does.”





	

[Author's notes:

Spoiler-free, set in Season 1 a little while after Five's arrival! Hope you enjoy! More chapters, featuring other runners will come up soon!]

 

TRUST - SARA SMITH: RUNNER 8

 

You jog around the track at a steady pace, not too much, not too little, warming up your muscles for the day’s run. Sara is on the grass, stretching her limbs for the same purpose. The two of you have a supply mission in the early morning; the daylight is only just peeking out, albeit without the sun’s companionship in the sense that it is hidden behind a thick layer of clouds. It’s summer, which means that the rumble in the distance is a warning. You know that Sam and Janine were debating whether it was smart to send runners out with the brooding weather, but they agreed to risk it because what you’ll be aiming to find is a necessary supply, more than ever during the apocalypse.

You have to go to the town. Some other runners discovered a set of solar cells lodged onto a tall house and they seem to be intact because of the height they are at. Some of those fancy ones where they can be split into smaller pieces, which makes it easy (or easier) for runners to carry.

It’s not necessarily because you and Sara have to carry them, but you must go investigate whether it’s worth sending a bigger team for them.

 

Slowing your step, you breathe out and catch Sara’s eye – She nods and you grab your jacket and backpack from the ground, throwing it over your shoulders and head to her.

You’ve run with her before. You are very new in the township. You’ve been here for a bit more than two months after the helicopter crash. They invited you in rather openly, but Sara was always suspicious of you. She made that clear – Not to be mistaken with her being unfriendly, because that’s not the case. She is very nice to you, but don’t hide that she doesn’t fully trust you. It helped when she found your ID at the crash site; But you are still new, and you should always be aware of the new ones. You appreciate her directness to a degree through.

 

Without many words, you head to the gates together and are handed two headsets, one for each, and Sam’s friendly, albeit slightly tired, voice reaches you.

“ _Morning, guys! Yeah, sorry to have you go this early – Even through zoms don’t sleep, Chris has noticed a tendency of them being, well, sloppier in the morning. When you’re going to the town, that’s safer.”_

_“Mr. Yao, mission briefing.”_

_“Right, and Janine will join us too! Yay..!”_ (that sounded ironically unenthusiastic, which is just a bid amusing.) _“Anyways, you’ll have to go to the midtown to look at those solar cells. We’re doing it this early also so that New Canton doesn’t have a chance to snatch them from us. You might not be able to carry them if it starts raining, but we have to check if it’s even possible to get them down and take them home._ ”

 _“If all goes well, we’ll have a team out as early as this afternoon._ ” Janine adds. Always one for efficiency, which explains why she has no qualms about sending two runners out before even zombies are awake. Well if zombies theoretically slept, which they don’t. As far as you know.

_“You ready?”_

“Ready as we’ll ever be, Sam.” Sara answers and you nod, adjusting your backpack.

_“Raise the gates!_ ”

They start to creak open, a blaring alarm alerting citizens of the risk there is although it is so common to send runners out that few react on it. There’s an additional alarm if it’s not intended for the gates to raise and people need to seek safety.

 _“Covering fire…_ ”

Gunshots. Thankfully of a more or less friendly kind. The gates are high enough for you to see out now and you see a zombie fall over from a shot in the distance. A safe path.

“ _And go!”_

You run.

 

 

 

 

It’s not hard to get to the city, although you and Sara exchange a glance when the clouds roll over you and the wind picks up. Janine tells you to keep going in spite of it; Sam reassures you that he’ll keep you safe.

You believe him.

Still, those words don’t change the weather. Before you know it, drips turn into strings which then turns into a pour. It’s raining, heavily, but you and Sara keep your heads high in pride, not complaining. It’s not pleasant, but hardly anything is in the apocalypse and this is what you do. You run, you gather things and discover things to keep people safe.

 

 _“Runners, the building will come up on your right-hand side in a couple of minutes. A smaller group zombies to your 7 o-clock – Keep an eye out, but other than that you are relatively safe for now._ ”

“Glad to know that we are ‘relatively’ safe.” Sara comments dryly but with a hint of humor, a glint in her eye as she looks at you. You smile back.

“ _Better than nothing, Ms. Smith.”_

“I know! I meant it.”

Something about the way Sara talks to Janine makes you think they have a close relationship, that Sara is one of those people that Janine trusts. Janine has an air of being careful with who to put her trust in, she has to be to keep so many people safe, and Sara might respond to that perfectly. She is undoubtedly one of the strongest runners in the group, definitely physically but also mentally. She’s smart, so even if she doesn’t trust you, you feel like you trust her.

 

“ _Oh shoot, zombies at 3!_ ” Sam exclaims just as you catch sight of your building. _“Make a sharp left, you can circle the building to the back door. Hopefully it’s open and if it’s not, you can knock in a window or something._ ”

You follow his directions, although Sara does chug a brick at the closest zombie to take it down a peg, hitting it square in the face so that it tumbles back and falls into two other zoms.

“How does the saying go – Three zoms with one stone?”

“ _Pretty sure it’s two birds with one stone—“_

“Not anymore it isn’t.”

You laugh.

 

You reach the building and as the door is locked, you have to make use of the debris again (thankfully it has some use other than making runners fall over) and you smash through the window to Sara’s amusement and she remarks that it’s good to see that you have some strength to you. Climbing in, Sam ushers you up into the building to reach the rooftop.

“This place is fancy.” Sara comments and you purse your lips, carefully taking in what might be sensible to come back for sometime. As runners, you’re trained to do this automatically.

“ _Spiral stairs with golden handles! And is that swords from Narnia hanging on the wall? Even the replicas cost a fortune! That’s ridiculous!_ ” Sam whines, _“Oh man, this is like a mansion! What is this place?_ ”

“I think it’s an office. It looks like it was being built when day 0 happened.” Sara says as you start jogging up the stairs, nodding towards the unfinished second floor. Aside from the dust, it looks like the building materials were just abandoned a few hours ago, for a lunch break.

“ ‘Comansys’ “ You read out loud on a sign that’s halfway pinned to the wall.

Sam appears about to comment on it, but he is interrupted by a loud whining noise which makes you and Sara start.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP_

Sara lets out cuss. “An alarm system! Must be a delayed one to take robbers by surprise - I guess the solar cells kept it powered! At the very least that knows they work.”

 _“Damn it! This is going to attract zoms from the whole area – Hurry up guys, get to the roof and close the door, then they shouldn’t be able to reach you!_ ”

You both speed up and you can already spot a zombie jaggedly trying to climb the stairs below you. More will be following soon.

Sara presses open your way out to the rooftop and you are surprised at how much the wind has picked up by the time you’re out. A rumble of thunder joins it and the rain is whipping into your face uncomfortably.

The metal door slams close behind you without you having to move it – it’s heavy and if it hadn’t managed itself, the wind helped it.

“Alright, Janine, we’re on the roof! Now what?” Sara has to yell over the rain, wind and the alarm still blaring below you.

“ _Good – The solar cells take up almost all the space on the roof, apart from a few paths you can walk on between them. You have to try and find the source of the cables to see if we can take them off and bring the cells with us while keeping them functional._ ” She instructs you both.

“Five, head that way – I’ll go over here.”

 

It’s morning now, so it should be lighter than it is but the rain blocks your sight and the clouds are near black. The light that does help you is the lightning, which occasionally offers a glimpse. Your clothes are soaked, you can tell that Sara’s are too as you look for where the cables lead. Because it was only just being built, you suppose, it’s not very organized yet, but it works, so it must be around.

You reach the edge of the roof and peer over it, grimacing. “Sam, how do we get down? The zoms are surrounding the building.” You ask him – It’s not immediately important, but it will become it and you like to think ahead.

“ _Yea, uh, I’m working on figuring something out. If you disconnect the solar cells, it might stop and they will get bored and wander off? It’s my best bet. I’m not assuming any backup generator will work at this point.”_

“You hear that Sara?” You call.

You can’t hear her response but see a thumbs’ up between the solar cells.

 

 “I think I might have found it!” She calls from the opposite side of the roof and you turn to head towards her at a light jog. She is on top of the protective edge, holding on to the horn of a deranged creature halfway carved into a piece of wood, probably meant as some décor for the roof.

“It’s down on the side of the wall.” She calls to you to which you nod in response. A short glance towards the door confirms that no zombies have joined you on the rooftop.

“ _Alright, Runner 8, you have to reach down to disconnect it. Runner 5, head over to ensure that she won’t—“_

_“Sara! There’s a zom under that cell! It was stuck before, but it’s out, get away from it!”_

It’s Sam who interrupts and as if the storm wasn’t enough, now things move way too fast. A crawler snarls and claws out towards Sara, who tries to evade its grabbing hands by leaning outwards – But it is raining and it is windy on the top of this roof and as the zombie gets closer to her, she runs out of something to hold on to.

She slips and disappear from your sight.

“ _Eight!”_

 _“Sara! Five, she fell!”_ Sam cries in your ear but you don’t pay attention to it. In the span of a split second after she’s out of your sight, you pick up the nearest item on the ground (which happens to be a big-ass axe and you wonder what it was even originally used for) and swing it at the construction-worker zom, who is now paying attention to you.

You might not be trained that formally, but you have a good aim when it comes down to it. You cut the head clean off and don’t even look at the corpse before running to the edge of the roof. You are working on instinct.

Looking over the edge, you still hear Sam and Janine talking frantically, but you can’t make out what they’re saying.

But you see her.

She’s there, clutching on to a slippery edge a meter or so down. Below her, zombies are clawing at the building. You can see that her grip is tight, but slipping because the edge is not very long.

“ _Oh God – Five, have you got any rope?”_

“No.”

_“Uhhh, alright, um, let’s see—Wait, what are you doing?”_

_“Runner 5, get away from that edge! You cannot climb down there!”_

You want to respond with a cheeky ‘try me’ but decide to focus on the task as you lean over the rail and hook your feet onto it almost like a hook. It’s dangerous, but life is. That’s how the world is now.

“Five, don’t be mad! You’ll fall!” Sara grits her teeth, “No sense wasting another runner!”

You ignore her.

“ _We’ll figure something out, Five, it’s dangerous. If those zoms below you get you, you’re done for!”_

You also ignore him.

But you’re not dumb. You don’t have any rope, but you have two strong hands. Try to lower yourself to her, keeping an eye out and making sure that your feet stay hooked around the rail.

You reach down. It’s not quite enough, though.

 

“Grab on!”

“If I let go with one hand, the other can’t hold up my weight on this ledge. If I miss your hand, I will fall.” There’s a question resting behind that statement.

_Can I trust you to catch my hand before I fall?_

“You won’t miss.”

_Yes, you can._

She stares at you and you stare back – She’s evaluating your answer. If you’re speaking the truth, if it’s worth the risk.

If she can fully put her trust in you.

 

Then she swings from side to side, carefully, building up a momentum and you tighten every muscle in your body to prepare for the additional weight, praying that you will not slip. At the bottom of the rail, there is a stone ledge, so if she can climb up you and grab that, she can pull both of you to safety.

If Sam or Janine has said anything, you haven’t heard it. You’re focused on this only.

Then, she swings to one side and you see her grip lessen and then let go with her left hand, her right hand stretching up towards you. For a second, you think she’s not gonna catch it, but you promised she would, so you stretch all you can, downwards, spreading your fingers—

You grab her wrist and she grabs yours. Her left hand slips and you’re all she’s hanging on to, you’re all she has.

There’s an ecstatic yell in your headset, relief you identify it as, and you reach for her other hand and she grabs it.

“Climb up.” You breathe, trying to keep your feet hooked to the rail still, to not let both of you fall to your doom.

She does, it’s a strain, she almost breaks the seams in your jacket, but she gets there. She informs you every time she does something so that you’re prepared for it. At one point, she stops, when she’s around halfway up.

“Hold on for an extra second, Five.” She instructs and you nod. You feel her move to one side, stretching and then doing a ripping motion – You then realize that the alarm stops within the building.

She disconnected the solar panels.

She tells you when she continues up and climbs over the rail.

“I’m gonna haul you up, Five – Hang on tight!”

Yeah, you really do trust her, you realize. She could easily pluck your feet out and let _you_ fall, but she doesn’t. She grabs your feet and pulls until you stumble backwards to the safety of the rooftop, breathing heavier than you thought you would.

“ _Oh my God, you did it! That—That’s the most impressive maneuver I’ve seen! Like something out of an action movie!_ ” Sam screeches and you smile vaguely at his relief.

“That was stupid.” Sara looks at you and you purse your lips slightly, smile falling. She looks serious. “Much too risky, Five. It could easily have killed both of us.”

“It didn’t, though.”

“Don’t do that again.”

“I can’t promise that.” You tell her honestly, stepping over the zombie corpse and then facing her again. “Runners save each other even at their own expense.”

“…Yes. They do.”

Her gaze changes to something you can’t quite decipher, but a small nod, a kind you haven’t seen her pass in your direction before, gives you an unspoken indication.

_I respect you. I might even trust you._

The zombies eventually lose interest and you can head home. The way back, you feel a different connection with Sara Smith and that her mysterious façade is more than just a protective distance. She is always evaluating, testing what kind of person she is dealing with.

When you enter the gates, she flashes you a smile. “Mission success.” She says and you have a feeling like she means that in more ways than said.

You just smile back.


End file.
